Spoilers After The Break: Uncanny Avengers #8 Review

The only Avengers book I’ve been reading regularly since the end of Secret Wars is All-New All-Different Avengers.  That is mostly because of the presence of Miles Morales.  (I read Uncanny Avengers for about 5 minutes before Peter Parker/Spider-Man left the team.)   And much like I mentioned in my Spider-Women Alpha review, I’m a sucker for crossovers, especially those that interrupt my regular monthly readings with tie-ins.  As such, I’ve been reading the Avengers Standoff event.  Some spoilers and thoughts on the latest chapter, Uncanny Avengers #8, after the break.

Spoilers After The Break: Old Man Logan #4 Review

It’s Old Man Logan versus Old Man Rogers in this weeks Old Man Logan #4.  Some thoughts, including spoilers, after the break.

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Secret Wars 53 (What Year Is It? Edition)

Most alternate realities that make up the multiverse at both Marvel and DC Comics are variations on a theme.  There are some completely originally universes, but most are inhabited by Elseworlds and What If? stories that take our familiar heroes and villains and apply a twist.  Maybe the hero and villain have changed roles.  Or our hero was raised in Russia instead of on a farm in the middle of the US.

A common twist is to time displace characters.  For example, what if Batman was around in the days of Jack The Ripper?  In 2003, writer Neil Gaiman transplanted the Marvel Universe to the Elizabethan Era in the hit 1602.  Not surprisingly, a domain of Battleworld gets dedicated to this time period in 1602 Witch Hunger Angela.  Unfortunately, while the original series was a huge success, this Secret Wars version is quite poor.  But to fulfill my contract here at Gabbing Geek, I still need to cover the last two issues after the break.

In much the same vein, the Secret Wars series 1872 takes the Marvel Universe and places it in the old West.  So after the break I’ll also be cluing up the final 3 issues of that series…for better or worse.  (For worse if you ask Ryan.)

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Secret Wars 50 (Civil War Edition)

Way back in the middle of July I reviewed Civil War #1.  Six months and 4 issues later I’ll finally look at Civil War #2-5 after the break.  The series was a bit of a mixed bag starting off but unlike many of the Secret Wars series, really finished strong.  It is currently ranked 12th in our nearly completed Secret Wars Power Rankings.

Two, Two, Two Captain America’s In One (Don’t Call It The 616) Universe

Not to be outdone by DC’s big Justice League special on The CW last night, Marvel had their own special celebrating 75 years of the man with the red, white and blue shield.

During the special Marvel announced that Steve Rogers would be returning to the role of Captain America this summer.  For those not keeping up with the current state of the Marvel U, Rogers dramatically aged in 2014 after losing his super soldier serum and then Falcon Sam Wilson took over the role of Cap.  So with Cap apparently de-aged, juiced up and carrying a new triangular shield that calls back to his first appearances 75 years ago, where does that leave Falcon-Cap?  Status quo it appears, and for the second time in recent memory, the Marvel Universe will have two Captain America’s.

Look for Steve to get his groove back in the “Avengers Standoff” crossover and star in his own title once again this summer in Captain America: Steve Rogers.

 

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Secret Wars 45 (Issue 5 Edition)

This week saw the release of Ultimate End #5, the second to last Secret Wars book.  Now we just have to wait a month for the four month delayed finale to get the anticlimactic details on how Doom was defeated and everything basically returned to normal.  Where All-New, All-Different seems to equal “we got Miles now and Wolverine is back (kinda)”.

Click through as I cover the fifth and final issues of the following books: Ultimate End #5, Planet Hulk #5, Secret Wars 2099 #5, Armor Wars #5, Spider-Verse #5, Inhumans: Attilan Rising #5, Inferno #5 and A-Force #5 .

As usual there are spoilers, so take care, especially with Ultimate End which is only days old.  The others have been out a while.

Be sure to check out our latest Secret Wars Power Rankings, which also features links to the other parts of my read through.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #44: Isaiah Bradley

Diversity in long-standing superhero comics is hard work.  Most of the classic superheroes were white men because they were largely created by white men.  There were a handful of white women in the mix, but minority representation among superheroes has often been rough if not outright painful in the way some creators set about creating a hero of color.

Sometimes the answer is to create a new version of the hero in question, a legacy character, that can be of another race and hope it goes over well.  That can lead to successful characters, like Green Lantern John Stewart, or less successful ones, like the Marvel hero Battlestar, a black man set as a partner to U.S.Agent, himself a onetime Captain America.  Battlestar initially went by the codename “Bucky” until someone realized that was actually a rather racist name and changed it to Battlestar.

But then there’s the curious case of Isaiah Bradley.

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Secret Wars 41 (Issue 4 Edition)

Well, it took a lot longer and was a much more enjoyable journey than DC’s Convergence, but I think I’m officially burnt out on Secret Wars. I’m still looking forward to reading the last two issues, but with the new regular Marvel universe soldiering on almost as if nothing happened, and those two issues being months late, they are almost an afterthought at this point.

But, like the final days of Convergence I still have a lot of books to cover off in my attempt to read everything. Well, moreso, to blog about everything, the reading part is done. To keep myself interested now I have to make a game of it. I see how many times I can bounce Secret Wars and then try to break that record. No wait, that is a different game.

Click through as I cover, for no reason whatsoever, the fourth issue of the following books: Planet Hulk, Armor Wars, Inferno, Spider-Verse, A-Force, X-Tinction Agenda and Ultimate End.

Be sure to check out our latest Secret Wars Power Rankings, which also features links to the other parts of my read through.

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Secret Wars XXXIII (Ghost Racers Edition)

Like many back in the day I was a huge Ghost Rider fan.  I grew up with the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider, but also read a lot of Johnny Blaze and the original incarnation from the 1970’s.  I lost touch with Danny and Johnny at some point after the Midnight Sons days.  I did pick up some of the “recent” mini-series written by Devin Grayson and Garth Ennis that saw Blaze return as Ghost Rider.  But that’s still like 10 years ago.  The look of the All-New All-Different Ghost Rider never grabbed me so I haven’t read any of the adventures of Robbie Reyes.  Which puts me at kind of a disadvantage as he is the main character of this book.

But in all honesty, all you really need to know is that all the Ghost Riders from across time and the multiverse have been brought to Doom’s Killiseum to entertain the masses in a kind of twisted, demonic chariot races.

After the cut I’ll look at Ghost Racers #1, Ghost Racers #2, Ghost Racers #3 and Ghost Racers #4.

Related links:
Secret Wars Power Rankings
Tom’s Road To Secret Wars: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7.
Other parts of this series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32

Awesome Civil War Infographic

Curious about how Captain American and Iron Man stack up for the upcoming Civil War?   Our friends over at Costume Discounters created this slick infographic comparing the two heavy hitters.  We’ll find out how the movie ends in only seven months!  Check out the full infographic after the break.